Cuomo offers 4 part plan to reopen parts of New York by May 15

Governor Andrew Cuomo provides a coronavirus update during a press conference in Rochester, New York, on Monday, May 4. (Mike Groll / Office of Governor Cuomo)

Gov. Cuomo Monday laid out a path that could see some regions of upstate New York start to reopen as soon as May 15 as the coronavirus death toll took a significant drop to 226.

Even as the governor said that statewide shutdown rules will officially expire in less than two weeks, he laid out stringent conditions that must be met before even little-impacted regions can start to reopen.

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“Regions can start to reopen and do their own analysis, but these are the facts that they have to have in place to do it,” he said.

Cuomo laid out an intricate set of requirements, including a declining number of coronavirus cases and available hospital capacity.

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A woman wearing personal protective equipment bikes down Clinton Street with her dog on May 4, in New York City. As the rest of the country prepares to reopen, New York City continues its shutdown to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. (Bryan Thomas/Getty Images)

He stressed that even areas that are only mildly affected must show steady declines because otherwise, they might be susceptible to renewed outbreaks.

Although the governor sounded a note of flexibility, he warned against expecting anything close to normalcy to return anytime soon, especially in New York City and its immediate suburbs.

“If upstate has to wait for downstate to be ready, they’re going to be waiting a long time,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo laid out a seven-point set of criteria regions would. have to meet before starting to reopen.

That checklist includes two straight weeks of reductions in death and cases, except for areas with negligible totals. It also requires that more than 30% of hospital and intensive care beds remain open to guard against a possible surge.

A temporary morgue is seen in a parking lot near 2nd Avenue and 36th Street in Brooklyn, New York on Monday, May 4. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

New COVID-19 hospitalizations must remain below 2 per 100,000 residents. There must be enough testing capacity to test at least 3% of the population monthly and 30 contact tracers per 100,000 people.

Even once a region meets the criteria, it must start by opening construction and some manufacturing sites. After that, retail and professional services enterprises will be allowed. Restaurants and hotels would follow. The last stage of opening would include entertainment and sports events.

Shoppers in masks wait on a line around the block to enter the Costco on 39th Street in Brooklyn, New York on Monday, May 4. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

Cuomo did not lay out a time frame for each stage of the reopening process.

As other governors have rushed to reopen their economies, Cuomo has been a steadfast advocate of a go-slow approach. Even as New York has succeeded in significantly reducing deaths and cases, he repeatedly has warned against allowing complacency to slip in.

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